Painting ‘Free your mind, identity denied’. This painting is inspired by some beautiful satsangs I’ve listened to lately by some of my favourite spiritual gurus.
The strongest force in the human personality, is the strong need to define ourselves. We have a constant need of identifying ourselves and whatever you identify with, your mind circles and focus around that. And so you limit yourself to a constant stream of thought process, with decreased awareness. Right now you identify with a lot of things that you are not, such as your job title, nationality or family. Those are roles, functions you have in this world but you can honor them without identifying with them. Those are things you have, but not what you are. Whatever you accumulate can be yours, but it can never be You.

If your mind or your intelligence does not get entangled with any identity, such as your body, your thought process, or your emotions, spiritual process is very natural. If your intelligence is not entangled with anything, it is natural for your intelligence to acquire and open up different dimensions of life. But our problem is that we identify ourselves. Why is this a problem? Because if you strongly identify with form in this world, you have a scenario of what life should be like. And so you see life from a limited place. With the feel and the need to have control over it, to stir it in a specific direction. If it doesn’t go as expected you feel unhappy, insufficient or dissatisfied. And instead of letting life flow, expectations or worry starts to control us.

By detachment from this body and mind, and detachment from identity, we can understand how we are pure consciousness, the one true force of the universe, acting as if it was human for a little while. With this expanded perspective, nothing becomes so serious, and peace of mind can kick in. Calm can be created, consciousness increased, and life can roll with a greater flow.